


Nights

by GalaxyAqua



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Another Episode
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Gen, No Plot/Plotless, POV Second Person, Post-Canon, can be read as platonic or romantic, up to you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2016-03-10
Packaged: 2018-05-25 21:45:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6211279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyAqua/pseuds/GalaxyAqua
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She’s so small, you think. She’s never been this small around you before. </p><p>“Komaru, come on,” you whisper, wiping her tears with your thumb. “It’s fine. You’re fine. I’m here.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nights

**Author's Note:**

> I know this is short & pretty plotless but I really wanted to write this so ?? have comfort post drae toukomaru (which can be read as platonic if you really want I'm not gonna stop you hahaha)

The decision you made to stay with her isn’t one you regret.

It’s certainly not favorable, and you’re starting to really hate Towa City in all its messed up glory, but you can say with confidence that you don’t regret staying with her. Looking out for her. Protecting her.

Sometimes though, you have to wonder if it’s one _she_ regrets herself. You have to wonder if it’s a decision that she’s made to hurt herself.

Let it be known that Komaru Naegi is not a strong girl – was not one when you first laid eyes on her – and though she’s grown to become half of one, her heart is still unfathomably weak.

She bawls like a baby when she thinks you’re asleep. She steals the blankets, fidgets, covers her face, smothers herself trying to keep quiet, but each and every night you lie awake until she’s cried herself dry.

Nights when she’s fine are a blessing, but those nights are rare. Too rare, you think, and not only because you don’t get a chance to sleep.

It’s because it hurts you, somewhere deep down, when you know she’s in pain.

You want to help but you’ve never helped a soul in your life.

That thought only hurts you more.  

“Touko,” she often calls, soft and fearful, but you know that even if it’s your name, she’s not calling you. She thinks you’re asleep. She wants the person you _could have been_ to her, but not you as you are now. Useless, terrible Touko Fukawa.

You listen to these whispers of your name, fragile in the still night air, and wish you were a better person.

* * *

 

One night, out of the blue, you decide to reply.

“Touko, please,” she sounds so desperate, so panicked one night, that you can’t lie ignorant anymore. You can’t listen anymore.

 “I’m here,” you say, arms reaching out delicately, catching her in your tight embrace. You’re not one for physical contact, but you know it’ll help. You can sacrifice a few minutes of discomfort for her.

Even if it’s in the middle of the night and she’s woken you. You should be mad. If it had been anyone else, perhaps you would have been.

You’re not though. Not mad, you mean. Not right now.

“I’m here, Komaru, don’t cry anymore.” Your reassurance feels fake – Your everything feels fake. You don’t know how friendship works. You’re worthless here. – but it’s the best you can do. You’ve never had to comfort anyone before, and this is all you know _how_ to do. She’s pale as death in the moonlight and it scares you.

“Touko…!” She wails, astonished and rubbing frantically at her eyes. She suddenly has so much to say, you can feel it, but a sinking feeling in your chest tells you that she’s not going to say a word about it, either way. She’s been strong for too long.

“Look at me.” You strain to say. Your bony fingers wrap around her wrists. “S-stop that. You don’t need to cry, okay? Get a hold of yourself.”

But she doesn’t listen. Tears escape and roll down her face, her shoulders shaking and her chest heaving. Her hair falls messily around her face, she shakes her head miserably, and your heart aches.

She’s so small, you think. She’s never been this small around you before.

“Komaru, come on,” you whisper, wiping her tears with your thumb. “It’s fine. You’re fine. I’m here.”

“Touko, Touko, Touko,” she repeats like a mantra. Like she can’t believe you’re there in front of her and that she’s not alone. “I’m scared,” she says, so quiet that you barely catch it. “I’m so scared.”

You have so many biting comments and scathing lines to throw, but for once, you understand.

She’s not the same as you – she doesn’t know the world like you do.

She’s never heard the rickety laughter, the horrible words, seen the headlines, felt the hatred. She doesn’t know what it’s like to have her whole existence rejected; for people to prefer that she’d just not exist.

She’s never been more than an ordinary girl in an ordinary town. She had friends that loved her, a healthy family environment.  

How on earth is somebody like you supposed to be a crutch for someone like her?

“I’m here, stupid,” you try again.

It achieves nothing.

“It’s okay to be scared.” You attempt, because though lines like that don’t work on you, you’re sure a simple soul like hers would learn to accept it. Komaru shudders, burying her distraught face in the crook of your neck. Getting there. “G-go back to sleep, idiot.”

She mutters something incoherently, but you can hear her sniffling, slowing the flow of tears and taking deep, even breaths.

“T-there you go.” You pat her back awkwardly. Your arms feel wrong. You’re so bad at this, you want to start crying yourself.

You don’t, of course, because that would be painfully mortifying – even if it’s just Komaru and you, even if it’s just sweet, caring Komaru who never deserved what she got. She’s seen you cry before, sure, but you’d rather not have a repeat of last time. That was a memory you’d like to bury far, far back into the recesses of your mind.

She’s still shaking.

“You okay now?” You venture hesitantly, and she wraps her arms tight around you this time (so tight it almost hurts, but you’ve never felt more needed in your life), so you take that as a half-no and a half-yes. It’s better than nothing. Especially at the cost of having her brown hair prickle you in the face. “Hey. You’re… so clingy, geez...”

A short span of silence stretches over you. You hope this is a good thing, because you’ve never learnt to read the signs.

“Touko… thank you,” she says in the end, ignoring your jibe at her. She tends to do that a bit.  You forgive her. You always do.

“W-what,” You stammer, “What are you thanking me for? I didn’t do anything…”

“For being here. For not leaving me.”

“God knows you can’t do anything on your own…”

 She laughs, finally, though it doesn’t hold the same brightness as usual. Even so, it lifts your heart a little higher and you feel your own fond smile tugging at your lips. This must be what weakness feels like.

“Aw, that’s mean…” Komaru pouts a little, pulling back, her beautiful big eyes now blinking back the remainder of her tears as she looks directly at you.

“You know I wouldn’t leave you alone.” You say, figuring if it was sap hour that made her feel better, then sap hour it is. The things you do for this girl.

Her complexion is still blotchy, and her eyes red-rimmed and puffy, but she looks so damn beautiful when she smiles that time that you don’t even notice much anymore. “You’re the best, Touko.”

You smile back, hiding it behind your hand. “Yeah, yeah, I know.”


End file.
